Attempts by the mainstream media to practice blogging is like watching your parents dance: awkward and off time, says journalist Ana Marie Cox. As the witty and talented editor of Time.com and contributor to its political blog Swampland, Cox proves that mainstream media blogs actually can dance.

Cox has made a career of taking risks and forging her own unique path. She was born in Puerto Rico, and grew up in Texas and Nebraska. She graduated from the University of Chicago in 1994 and went to graduate school at the University of California for history. Cox dropped out a year later just as the dot-com boom was taking place. “The only people that would take these webzine jobs were those who couldn’t get jobs anywhere else,” Cox recalls. “That’s how I got my experience.”

The boom came and went, and Cox relocated to Washington, D.C., to try her hand at freelance journalism. But the Hill was a little harder to climb. Newspapers weren’t accepting Cox’s story ideas, so she started her own blog as a way to market her pitches.

The plan worked, kind of. Blog publisher Gawker Media offered her a job as the founding editor for one of its first efforts, the political gossip site Wonkette.

Wonkette emerged as a political force during the last presidential election, thanks in part to Cox’s wit and timely observations. Cox says her experiences at the blog helped her to learn how to “let go” of her internal editor.

Despite the success of Wonkette, Cox found the responsibility of heading her own blog draining. “I could never take three hours and leave my home office and hang out, because if something happened I was expected to be there on it right way,” Cox says. “You can’t do that and be human.”

In addition, Cox was writing her novel about the 2004 election, “Dog Days.” Cox felt that writing a book was even more solitary than blogging, but found the reward to be greater. “It was much more fulfilling when I finished, having a thing in your hand you can give to your parents. For instance, ‘Oh, a book, I get it. This is what you worked on all day,’” she jokes.

Cox left Wonkette in 2006 and once again became a political blogger, but this time as one of four writers for Time magazine’s new blog, Swampland. Cox says the blog is a reflection of the writers’ conversation.

“Mainstream media people are cautious,” she says. “There’s a real reluctance to embrace the fluidity of blogs. I think people are pleasantly surprised that Swampland has incredibly good writing and is incredibly conversational. It reads like a blog.”

The conversation has also helped her personally, she says. “I’m having a really good time. Having colleagues is one of the biggest differences, it’s one of the biggest things I appreciate.”

Having colleagues has allowed Cox to do more original reporting. “Everyone I know tries to live up to the idea of Time magazine in a good way. Hey, why not email a few people and get an official comment and pick up a phone,” Cox says. “That’s the value add we bring to blogging.”

She adds: “I used to say Wonkette was like me after a couple of margaritas, and Swampland’s more like me before a couple margaritas.”

But working for a mainstream media blog hasn’t tamed the irreverent, ironic tone that has made Cox so popular. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being a little mean,” Cox says. “They say to singe, not burn. I say burn.”